(edit title) Applying for Swedish citizenship What was your experience? Options

[swedenlife]

Did it take long from application to approval?
Did you have to answer a lot of extra-questions from Migrationsverket?
Have you been denied for any reason?

Your personal experience - very curious!

[Puffin]

Mostly it is pretty straight forward as long as you have
- completely the necessary residence time
- met the good conduct requirements and steered clear of legal and economic troubles with the police, tax agency etc

It says on Migrationsverkets website that the waiting times have recently increased as 40,000 people are expected to apply this year - some people are waiting up to 15 months for a decision - however for others it goes a lot quicker
http://www.migrationsverket.se/info/2261_en.html

My daughter was denied at her first application - she applied along with DH - but they refised her for not having 5 years of residence - she was born in Sweden but was only 4½ at the time

[swedenlife]

Thanks for sharing your experience, Puffin. Anyone else?

[Musiclinum]

I have submitted my application via the web (which they say it's the fastest way) last Jan and i haven't heard anything from them.

tried to contact their customer service one week ago and all i got after waiting on the queue for a long time (many times thrown out from the queue) is that they HAVEn't yet started to process my application and they can't tell when somebody will pick it up (simply they making themself busy in this scenario)

Holding the passport is kind *"#¤%
imagine 15 months without pass!!!

It's possible to request your pass 2 weeks before any "planned" travel, u like to jump on the plain and have a crazy trip to wonderland? forget it. talking about Process which is .... !!!

I think it's hard to estimate the time even though your papers are CLEAN for them.
I think mine is straight forword though.

[Marieta Ta Ta]

Hi

My citizenship process went incredibly smoothly.
I applied for it semptember last year and after just 2-3 WEEKS I received a certificate saying I was now a swedish citizen.
You have to apply both online and via paper.
No extra questions, nothing.

I live in Stockholm btw.

Good luck!

[Meatball]

Mine was so incredibly quick it's actually a bit unbelievable. 6 December 2009 I had been here the required 3 years and after a bit of slack from my part I eventually sent off the papers on Sunday 18 December from the local ICA and Tuesday 20 December I got a note to say there is a registered letter waiting for me and when I went there the next to pick it up it was my passport and the Swedish citizenship letter. I did not even wait one full week! Could very well have been that it went that quick because of me being married to a Swede, longer than 10 years and not living in Sweden in those 10 years...could also have been that they just wanted to go on Christmas Leave...who knows

[essem]

Mine took about 4 weeks, applied over the web and they called me. I sent my passport off and got the confirmation back about a week later. But there was no telephone grilling or anything like that.

[Essingen]

Can't remember exactly how long mine took, but like most Swedish processes it worked well. I got to go to a ceremony in Stockholm Town Hall which was quite pleasant.

[Mpf]

When I arrived I applied for a residency permit (EU citizen) this was granted for 2 years initially. Thinking it would be automatically renewed I didn't think anything of it. At the 3 year point I applied for citizenship which was then denied as I didn't have a perminent residency permit.

Sent my application through the appeals system, meanwhile applied for and received my perminent residency permit which I then submitted to the appeal court.

When my case was heard I was granted citizenship without any further problems.

Lesson learned - After 2 years apply for your perminent residency permit. It doesn't happen automatically.

I still haven't been invited to any sort of ceremony though! :-( although I do have my Swedish Passport now and a Swedish Driving licence.

[swedenlife]

That's very interesting.

I wonder what is the difference between the application of @Musiclinum and @Marieta Ta Ta? (apart from the obvious level of English - did you apply in Swedish, @Musiclinum? Can you apply in English at all, since there is no language requirement?)

@Mpf, I am European as well and I have never heard of the ability to apply for permanent residency after only 2 years. As far as I am concerned, EU-nationals gain permanent residence in their host country automatically after 5 years. How did you do that?

I also wonder if anyone ever had problems when applying if she or he took a longer break from Sweden over winter time e.g. spending 3 months in Spain, or similar.

[Scuba]

@Mpf, I am European as well and I have never heard of the ability to apply for permanent residency after only 2 years. As far as I am concerned, EU-nationals gain permanent re ... (show full quote)

@Mpf, I am European as well and I have never heard of the ability to apply for permanent residency after only 2 years. As far as I am concerned, EU-nationals gain permanent residence in their host country automatically after 5 years. How did you do that? ... (hide full quote)

As you said, you get it automatically after 5 years, no matter what. Depending on your status in Sweden you can get it after 2 years of residency.

[GT]

Nice to read Marieta, Meatball and Eseem seemed to have their applications approved so quickly in a few weeks.

I applied 8 months back and have not heard anything. All papers were in order. Last time when I contacted Migrationsverket, they stated in writing that it will take 15 months.

It is pretty much to live without a passport for such a long time and without planning any travel even during vacation. It is taxing on my nerves. I am feeling like an island without possibility to travel when the semester is almost at your doorstep :-(

[nyh2o]

hey GT, sorry about your situation - i know i would be frustrated as well. it probably takes a long time for citizens of countries from where information is hard to collect, like iraq, iran, somalia, afghanistan, maybe south asia and parts of latin america (?) and shorter from countries which have a social security number and a more formalized database (australia and the us). i dont know if you are from one of those countries or not. perhaps other posters might be able to shed more light on this. but just order your passport back and go on your summer break man! life's too short for swedish beaurocracy ...and a summer is too valuable to lose over stupid paperwork. they probably wont be working on your application over the summer anyways...

[swedenlife]

Wow.

@Musiclinum - 15 months and still waiting
@Marieta - approved after 3 weeks
@Meatball - approved after less than 1 week
@essem - approved after 4 weeks
@GT - 8 months and still waiting

Good point with the original citizenship passport, @ny2ho. That makes me believe that they have different batches for different passports at Migrationsverket, and don't go through the applications chronologically. Would help to determine if we'd know which original citizenship(s) Musiclinum, Marieta, Meatball, essem and GT have/had.

[gplusa]

I was told today, via Migrationsverket, that you are required to send in your current passport with you application for citizenship. As we know. However, you can request to have your passport returned to you if you need it before your application is processed. Again, as we know. But, there is no time limit for returning your passport, and you hold your same place in the queue regardless. At such time as your file gets to the top of the pile, and is assigned a case worker, the case worker will contact you and ask for your passport. So the trick, unofficially from Migrationsverket, is to send your application and passport in, immediately ask for your passport to be returned, and then keep hold of your passport for the weeks/months/years until Migrationsverket are ready to look at your application.